Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.6 - Chapter 12

Sylvester Returns

I spent my days working on the handovers for the temple and the printing industry while reviewing Royal Academy coursework and observing the orphanage’s studies. The children with magic tools who were old enough to be baptized this winter were going to meet with Sylvester in the autumn so that he could determine whether they were worthy of becoming nobles under his guardianship. As a result, they were now intensely focused on their education, making sure there was nothing wrong with how they carried themselves. Melchior and the apprentice blue priests were approaching their duties with equal fervor as the Harvest Festival approached.

Dirk had now obtained a magic tool and was desperately chugging the potions that Roderick and Philine were making in an attempt to accumulate more mana. He wouldn’t need to enroll at the Royal Academy for another three years, but he wanted to get as much of a head start as he could.

As I continued my work, an ordonnanz arrived from Ottilie in the castle. Sylvester and his retinue were about to arrive back from the funeral in Ahrensbach.

“It would seem that Lord Ferdinand sent all sorts of gifts,” she continued. “You are wanted back at the castle today for dinner.”

So I returned to the castle with Melchior and our retainers. The mention of gifts had made me really excited; maybe there was a time-stopping magic tool packed with delicious fish among them.

“Welcome back,” we said to Sylvester as he alighted with Karstedt.

Once everyone was on their feet, the servants began unloading the luggage. The retainers’ carriages were arriving behind them, along with many more packed with nothing but luggage. They had departed with a ton of stuff and returned with just as much.

In fact, they’re using extra carriages, so they must have even more than they left with.

“You certainly brought a lot back with you,” I remarked to Sylvester. “You must have as much luggage as Ferdinand when he departed for Ahrensbach.”

He looked down at me with a grimace. “And whose fault is that? Do the two of you think I’m some kind of luggage servant?”

I certainly didn’t. The most I’d done was ask him to deliver the items Ferdinand requested, which meant there was only one culprit to speak of.

“Ah, I see. Ferdinand is to blame. It must be tough having such a demanding little brother.”

I was trying to praise Sylvester, but he gave me a swift chop beneath the cover of his long sleeves. How bizarre.

“You sent him something ridiculous, apparently. He put his head in his hands and said that the available ingredients wouldn’t be enough.”

“Something ridiculous?” I echoed. “What was he referring to?”

“How am I supposed to know? Anyway, the last three carriages are for you. We’re going to discuss Ahrensbach over dinner, so check them out and put the contents away before then.”

With that, Sylvester started shooing me away. I couldn’t help but blink in surprise as I gazed between him and the carriages. There were five packed with luggage... and three of those were for me?

“Lady Rozemyne, there is not much time before dinner,” Ottilie informed me. “Let us hurry.”

She summoned Gretia and Lieseleta before heading over to the carriages. I would need to sort through all three, but my motivation vanished the moment I saw the first one.

“There are plates, bowls, and pots,” I observed. “They’ve already been cleaned with waschen, so send them to the temple. Oh, but some of these might be from the food that Mother prepared for the Interduchy Tournament. I wonder which ones are hers...”

I never cooked, so I wouldn’t know without asking the chefs. That they were all empty at least meant he had eaten, but sorting through them was going to be even more of a chore than expected.

“Might I suggest sending them to the temple kitchen for Ella and Hugo to sort through?” Philine said. “Perhaps we could even fill them with new sweets and dishes when we return them to Lady Elvira.”

“Yes, that will do,” I replied, then instructed that the pots and dishes be loaded onto a separate carriage to be sent to the temple.

“And over there... Is that Ahrensbach cloth?”

It must have been hot in Ahrensbach, as there were boxes filled with especially thin cloth. Gretia spread one piece out, then stared at it quizzically.

“It certainly is thin,” she mused aloud. “I suppose we could only use it here during the hottest part of summer.”

“Layering it over other cloth should allow for the creation of many new designs,” I said. “Perhaps we should send a piece to Aurelia.” We had similar tastes—at least according to Brunhilde—so maybe she would use the cloth to make summer clothing for her son, Siegrecht.

Ottilie nodded, then addressed the servants: “Gifts of cloth are meant to be distributed among one’s associates, so take it all to Lady Rozemyne’s room. Cloth from another duchy is particularly rare and will doubtless bring much joy to its recipients. We must carefully consider to whom we distribute it.”

She clearly had the cloth under control, so I moved on to another box. This one was full of time-stopping magic tools.

“Just how many time-stoppers does Ferdinand own?” I wondered.

“Come now, Lady Rozemyne,” Lieseleta replied with a giggle. “You take every opportunity to send food to Ahrensbach, whether it be a fleeting reunion or a delivery of clothes. These are your tools he has returned to you.”

I see... I didn’t realize I sent this many.

“There must be so many because this is his first time sending any back to us,” Lieseleta ventured. “Filling them all must have been quite the effort.”

I imagined Ferdinand struggling to decide which meals to send me, which brought a smile to my face. But then I realized that he had probably dumped the task on Justus.

Your work is appreciated, Justus!

I opened one of the tools with that in mind, and found a bunch of strange things I’d never seen before organized into tiny groups. Hartmut and Clarissa, who were also peering inside, let out cries of delight.

“Oh my! Ahrensbach ingredients!” Clarissa exclaimed. “These are bound to be rare. Perhaps this is his payment for the ingredients and brewing utensils you sent him, Lady Rozemyne.”

“And there are notes explaining what they are,” Hartmut added. “Taking them straight to the library workshop seems ideal.”

And so it was.

I cracked open the next box, and the smell of the ocean immediately struck my senses. I pushed aside the lid without another moment’s hesitation, and took in the grand sight before me. There were a ton of tiny spresches packed into one corner, and regisches as well. I also spotted plenty of fish I didn’t recognize and some that had already been cut up, but that was fine; the accompanying notes explained what they were and how to prepare them.

“Yesss! Fish!” I cheered. “There’s so much!”

“Lady Rozemyne, please close the box before the fish start moving!” Damuel shouted. He then hastily replaced the lid, removing the fish from my sight—but simply knowing they were there was enough to fill my heart with glee.

Thank you, Ferdinand! I’m so happy right now!

There were so many fish recipes whirling through my mind that my head started to swim. It was a shame that we couldn’t cook them with soy sauce, but I was absolutely going to make spresch fish balls.

“Lady Rozemyne, where should we take this fish?”

“Divide it evenly between the castle and temple. I wish to share this joy with everyone.”

Also among the luggage were small accessories, trinkets, jars of spices, and seasonings that would nicely complement Ahrensbach dishes—a thank-you from Letizia for the sweets I’d sent her. There were various letters as well.

“We can sort through these jars in the library alongside the ingredients,” I said.

“Understood.”

After going through the rest of the luggage, I sent the carriages to my library and the temple. I made sure to inform Lasfam by ordonnanz and Fran by flying letter that a lot of goods were headed their way.

“Though I’m sure this was tiring enough,” Lieseleta said, “there will be more sorting to do when we return to your room.”

I nodded. We would need to decide who should receive the cloth and accessories, and in what order. I was already weary from all the delicate socializing—which I really wasn’t suited to—but I made my way to my room in the northern building. Wilfried, Charlotte, and Melchior accompanied me, all carrying souvenirs from Sylvester.

“So... those packages from Uncle really were all for you, huh?” Wilfried said, looking exasperated.

I pursed my lips. “And you all got things from Sylvester, I see. He didn’t get me anything.”

“You got all that luggage, yet you still want more?!”

“Packages from Ferdinand aren’t the same as souvenirs from my adoptive father.” Yes, Sylvester had complained about needing to prepare souvenirs for his kids at the very last minute after seeing that none of the luggage was for them, but that wasn’t my fault.

“Our sister was the only one who sent food and ingredients to Uncle, remember?” Charlotte noted. “It is only natural that she would be the only one to receive packages in response.”

She was completely right. Ferdinand had given me all that luggage in return for the things I’d sent him, so it wasn’t the slightest bit unusual. Then again, I supposed that he could have at least given my siblings something out of courtesy. That he had given them nothing at all was pretty harsh—but also a little admirable. He really was the kind of person who did the bare minimum that was required not to be outright offensive.

I thought back to when Ferdinand initially moved to Ahrensbach. I’d prepared gifts for Letizia as well as Detlinde, which he had said was superfluous, since Detlinde would most likely share a portion of the gifts she received with her sister anyway.

“He knows you have siblings,” Wilfried said. “Couldn’t he have been a bit more considerate?”

“I do feel a bit left out...” Melchior agreed.

I paused, unsure whether I should say what I really thought... then decided that I might as well. “Ferdinand never received that kind of consideration from Lady Veronica—any souvenirs and the like he received were probably hand-me-downs from his brother. So while you might consider it common sense, he was likely never taught that you should send gifts to a person’s siblings as well.”

Wilfried blinked in surprise, while Charlotte nodded. “I know how he feels,” she said. “Grandmother never gifted me anything—not even once. I was only ever given your hand-me-downs, Brother.”

“Really?” he asked.

“Really. She gave you her full attention in the eastern building. And when you came to the main building after your baptism, Mother and Father doted on you as well. It made me so very envious.” Her words were clearly shocking to Wilfried, but she refused to elaborate any further and merely concluded, “Mother sent me gifts on occasion, but Uncle did not even have that. We cannot blame him for not understanding these things.”

“Indeed,” I said. “Ferdinand most likely assumed that I would distribute the gifts to you all. You will receive shares of the cloth and fish, so please treat them as if he had given them to you directly.”

“I’m looking forward to it!” Melchior replied, sincerely overjoyed.

As I was dividing up the gifts in my room, dinnertime arrived in the blink of an eye. I made my way to the dining hall, looking forward to hearing about Sylvester’s trip.

“How was Ahrensbach?” I asked. “Has Ferdinand received a hidden room? Has he been eating?”

Sylvester nodded. “It’s in the western building, but yes—he’s got a hidden room now. I checked with Prince Sigiswald, and there was no mistaking it.”

“That’s a relief.” I assumed it was one less thing to worry about, but Sylvester shot me a stern glare.

“We received indirect complaints from Ferdinand’s retainers. They were already deathly busy with the funeral and welcoming visitors from Lanzenave, so moving to the western building on top of that was a nightmare.”

But while the retainers had disapproved of the extra work, having to clean and inspect the new room, Ferdinand had been over the moon.

“Not to mention,” Sylvester continued, “after I delivered those ingredients you gave me, he went straight into his new hidden room and refused to come out. He pulled so many all-nighters throughout the duration of the funeral that he ended up a complete mess. I suspect he was sleeping during the day instead, since he always looked better at dinnertime than in the morning.”

“He was that excited about it?!”

“Did you not expect that to be the consequence of giving him a hidden room, ingredients, and rejuvenation potions?”

Ferdinand, you big dummy! I didn’t spend all that time negotiating so that you could start staying up all night!

“Well, he was clearly having fun, so don’t worry about it too much,” Sylvester said. “I was more concerned about Lanzenave and the Sovereign Knight’s Order.”

“Did something happen?” Florencia asked, concerned.

“There was some kind of attack, rebellion, confusion... A section of the Sovereign Knight’s Order got violent all of a sudden.”

According to Sylvester, it really had come out of nowhere. The group had grown violent partway through the funeral, so the Ahrensbach knights and the Sovereign knight commander had swiftly taken them down.

“Five went wild, and two of them were killed,” Sylvester explained. “The other three were bound and sent back to the Sovereignty at once. They were suppressed in an instant, so no one got hurt.”

By the time the confused guests had turned to see the source of the commotion, the violent knights had already been subdued. It had all started and concluded so suddenly that some people had remained oblivious to the details, and the funeral had continued as if nothing had even happened.

The next day, however, word had spread that the knights had attacked Ahrensbach’s next aub by order of the royal family. Detlinde had apparently spent dinnertime screeching about how the Sovereign Knight’s Order and members of royalty had pointed their weapons at her, so everyone there had ended up under the assumption that a major incident had occurred.

“I can’t even begin to imagine who made it happen and why...” Sylvester said. “But I think the guests came away from the event with much less trust in the Sovereign Knight’s Order.”

“What did Ferdinand say?” I asked.

“He admonished Lady Detlinde, telling her that it wasn’t something to get so worked up about. In response, she chastised him for not taking her side and protesting against the royal family. Didn’t show a lick of gratitude for the fact that he’d already broken his back trying to smooth things over during the post-incident meeting with the royals and the Sovereign Knight’s Order.” He crossed his arms and heaved a frustrated sigh. “She had the king of Lanzenave’s grandson doting on her and all. He was acting more like her fiancé than Ferdinand. Seems to me that Lady Detlinde has taken a lover before her Starbin—”

“Sylvester,” Florencia interjected. Her silent smile exuded a pressure that said, “Not in front of the children,” and immediately he fell silent.

Oh yeah... Now that I think about it, didn’t Detlinde mention having a love that transcended status in the Royal Academy? I thought she split up with him, but apparently not.

Plus, if she already had a lover who was treating her well, then Ferdinand would come across as an even worse partner to deal with. He seemed nice at a glance, but the closer you got with him, the more crudely he treated you.

“Lanzenave is located outside of Yurgenschmidt, right?” Charlotte asked, having read the room and decided to change the subject. “Is there a reason it had representatives at Aub Ahrensbach’s funeral?”

Sylvester leapt at the opportunity to escape Florencia’s harsh glare. “Ahrensbach and Lanzenave mingle as a result of the country gate that connects them. Representatives from Lanzenave stay in Ahrensbach from around the end of spring until the end of autumn, and merchant ships start going back and forth between them. It was my first time seeing ships come out of a country gate, and it really was something else. Seeing the giant gate sticking up out of the ocean was impressive too.”

Because Ahrensbach and Lanzenave interacted so often, representatives from the latter had felt justified in attending the funeral. The outfits they had worn were apparently made with silver cloth.

“I only saw them from afar, and we only have a scrap to compare them to, so I can’t say anything for sure... but the silver of their clothes stood out to me. It wouldn’t be strange for Lanzenave to have a material that doesn’t contain any mana at all, would it?”

Bonifatius frowned, having been the one to discover the silver cloth in Gerlach. “We’ll need to be cautious, but the cloth is immune to mana, not attacks in general. It would prove tremendously useful against an assassination or during a quick back-and-forth at the start of a fight, but in a more drawn-out battle, it wouldn’t provide much defense at all.”

The cloth couldn’t be cut by a schtappe-made sword, but it also wouldn’t provide much protection against a strike from a blunt weapon. And of course, in the case of a mana-based attack, the parts of one’s body that weren’t fully covered would still be vulnerable. That was why Bonifatius asserted that its use as armor was severely limited.

“So, did you explain the situation to Ferdinand?” I asked.

“Yeah, when we spoke in his new hidden room,” Sylvester replied. “He said that he wanted a sample to experiment with.”

Sylvester went on to note that Lanzenave’s royal family bore Yurgenschmidt blood, which really made them stand out from their countrymen. The royals were fair-skinned, whereas the natives were dark-skinned with slightly different features.

“I was surprised when I saw one of them for the first time,” he said. “The natives made up about half of the Lanzenave guests, and they mentioned how strange it felt to actually be visiting Yurgenschmidt.”

“What kind of place is Lanzenave?” Melchior asked, his eyes sparkling. “I think I’d like to go there someday. Oh, but I want to visit other duchies first. I’m also really looking forward to going to the Royal Academy—my brother and sisters have told me so many stories about their experiences there.”

I gave an enthusiastic nod and said, “I feel the same way. I want to explore a Lanzenave library at least once. It fascinates me to think about what kind of books they might have there. And of course, I am similarly interested in the libraries of other duchies. Given their long histories, Klassenberg and Dunkelfelger must have some truly wondrous things to read.”

I could swoon just thinking about it.

As I imagined rows upon rows of books, Charlotte gave me a troubled—and rather teasing—look. “Sister, I don’t think you and Melchior are on the same page at all... Though your love of libraries is very apparent.”

I covered for myself with a smile.

A short while later, dinner came to an end. I tried to ask Sylvester for more details about Ferdinand, but he swiftly refused.

“Rozemyne, there were some letters among the luggage you received, remember?” he said. “You might as well read those. Oh, and one of them should be from Lady Letizia. Write her a response as soon as you can.”

“Understood.”